The 'demon' Calculator

[kratindaeng]

Alright, maybe its just me, and beleive me I am quite a sad individual, but do you ever find yourself constantly calculating the prices of thai stuff in your mind and converting back to your home countries currency, just to 'check the price'. I thought I would get over this 'price check paranoia', but even still, at the 7/11, I am intrigued to know how much UK GBP my smokeybite hotdog is. Anyone else do this, or should I just check into rehab sooner than I predicted?

KD

[Ijustwannateach]

This is a quite normal behaviour for people who are newly displaced from what they regard as their home currencies/consumer environments. You have little basis on which to judge whether prices are good or not in the new country, and so you're constantly converting back. When I was first living abroad I did this a lot the first few years.

I think it's also quite common for those whose income depends on foreign sources- including tourists and expats who have pensions denominated in foreign currencies. Possibly for those who frequently travel it's an important skill for the bigger ticket items so that you know (for example) that electronics are much cheaper in Singapore or Hong Kong than in Thailand and you could save a lot of money by doing all your electronics shopping there (if you did it in bulk, you might actually save the price of the air ticket and more- as long as you made the equipment look "used" enough that you didn't get taxed on the way into Thailand).

A friend of mine who earns his pension in dollars (and who has been frowning a lot lately at the exchange rates) is constantly exclaiming about how much such-and-such costs- in dollars. For him, it's important that way. But for those of us earning all baht, the utility of thinking that way fades after awhile (again, except for the bigger-ticket items or imported stuff).

"Steven"

[mcgriffith]

No, and Yes!

The flip side of this phenomenon is being OUTRAGED when the price of Key Limes in the soi near my apt went up 50% a few months ago.

Waddayamean 3 for TEN BAHT?

Later I figured it out. Still peanuts, like almost all food (and everything else) in LOS...

Edited May 4, 2007 by mcgriffith

[Tywais]

But for those of us earning all baht, the utility of thinking that way fades after awhile (again, except for the bigger-ticket items or imported stuff).

That's pretty much the way it is with me. My reference point is baht now since that is what I get paid and am familiar with normal costs of items and relationships of costs. Yes, for a long time I was nearly constantly doing mental conversions but it slowly faded away and using baht is just natural now. Big ticket items like cars I will usually do a conversion because I also have an income from abroad and need to put it into the equation at times.

[PeaceBlondie]

The price conversion I can't get out of the demon calculator in my head is gasoline (benzene to some of you folks, or petrol). It's no easy thing to convert to dollars per gallon, either. Coming home just now in the pouring rain (hmm, sounds like a song lyric), I saw 29.54 baht and doubled and redoubled it. Now we're up to about 118 baht, and we have to reduce 5% to get a gallon instead of 4 liters. So that's 5.9 less, or 112.1 baht per dollar. Now, what's the conversion factor? This week I got 34.68 baht per dollar, so three dollars is 104 baht. The remaining 8.1 baht is more than 20 cents...maybe a total of $3.22. Now that I'm home, my Excel spreadsheet converts it to $3.237, which is pretty close. All the while I'm piloting a bike through the rain. I used to compute amortization rates in the bathtub! No, not the baht tub!

Does your demon calculator work better dry, or wet?

[solent01]

The price conversion I can't get out of the demon calculator in my head is gasoline (benzene to some of you folks, or petrol). It's no easy thing to convert to dollars per gallon, either. Coming home just now in the pouring rain (hmm, sounds like a song lyric), I saw 29.54 baht and doubled and redoubled it. Now we're up to about 118 baht, and we have to reduce 5% to get a gallon instead of 4 liters. So that's 5.9 less, or 112.1 baht per dollar. Now, what's the conversion factor? This week I got 34.68 baht per dollar, so three dollars is 104 baht. The remaining 8.1 baht is more than 20 cents...maybe a total of $3.22. Now that I'm home, my Excel spreadsheet converts it to $3.237, which is pretty close. All the while I'm piloting a bike through the rain. I used to compute amortization rates in the bathtub! No, not the baht tub!

Does your demon calculator work better dry, or wet?

Ha ha ha PB, Cha cha, work with ltrs not glns, much easier. with glns you have to think statuate or US, ltrs are ltrs no matter where you are, to the op, yes I used to too, but the years here make you work only in Baht, well saying that I earn Baht not sterling (apart from the interest on my savings, and to be honest its too big to worry about), dollars or anything else, so to me Baht is all that matters.

[torrenova]

I don't do it very often but I do look at the Thai price of something versus the cost of an alternative Thai product. Changing it back to GBP, EUR, JPY or HKD would be pointless for me.

However, you cannot really help but think that some things here are so expensive that a conversion back to western currencies is inevitable.

[November Rain]

I do it the other way round when I go back to UK once a year or so...300bt for a mug of tea!!! In a motorway service station! When you had to put the tea bag & hot water in yourself!!

[Khutan]

I find I tend to convert the values back to the currency I am earning.

[peter991]

My Thai BF is in Australia on a 3 month's visa. He has the opposite problem - converting Australian dollars to Thai baht. Banknotes are fairly easy - it's the coins he is getting used to.

Peter

[Jockstar]

The longer you live in a country then the less you should convert. The wife vhas been here about 7 months now and at first she was converting to baht. That gave her a shock. You have to get over the conversion thing unless you have an income from your home country. BTW 1 dollar is around 30 baht. So last night i paid 150 baht a small beer.

[Neeranam]

Key Limes in the soi near my apt went up 50% a few months ago.

Waddayamean 3 for TEN BAHT?

Key Lime - never heard them called that.

The longer you live in a country then the less you should convert. The wife vhas been here about 7 months now and at first she was converting to baht. That gave her a shock. You have to get over the conversion thing unless you have an income from your home country. BTW 1 dollar is around 30 baht. So last night i paid 150 baht a small beer.

Agreed, I never convert into Pounds now.

30 baht - you mean Oz$. When I was there in 2000 it was only 20.

When I came to Thailand the US $ was 25 - people should be glad it's not that again instead of whatever it is now.

[Jockstar]

30 baht - you mean Oz$

Yes mate. Ozzie dollars.

Though this from XE.com

Live rates at 2007.05.05 03:51:56 UTC

1.00 AUD = 26.7531 THB

Australia Dollars Thailand Baht

1 AUD = 26.7531 THB 1 THB = 0.0373788 AUD

Edited May 5, 2007 by Jockstar

[PeaceBlondie]

One problem with the conversion factors is that they're not neat and easy. When I got here as a tourist in 2003, it was 42:1, and I just used 40. Now it's 34.68, which is really tough to convert. At least 33.33 would mean a baht was worth three pennies.

Despite some xenophobic tendencies, Thailand is not completely isolated from the world economy. Conversion rates do matter. In my case, all my pension income is in US$. When I also earned 25,000 baht in some months, I had to use both methods.

But that demon calculator won't stop converting. Oh, we just bought doughnuts at 7 baht apiece, and I don't convert that, but I compare them to Dunkin' Donuts who charge about 17 baht. But I just got quoted a price in Thailand, to edit my book, in dollars!

There's a housing estate in Chiang Mai that advertises prices starting at 520,000.....US$!!

[colino]

My problem is when i go back to the uk for a vist i convert every thing into baht and have a real shock and end up saying HOW MUCH ,ie local take away in the uk pork fried rice 3.00 pound ,, i only pay 20baht where i live , just like i did when i first came to the los

[Bjorn]

I do it the other way round when I go back to UK once a year or so...300bt for a mug of tea!!! In a motorway service station! When you had to put the tea bag & hot water in yourself!!

Same here! Always when I'm back in Sweden, I calculate the other way around. And I find everything terribly expensive in my home country. Luckily, I don't go there very often. Can't afford it!!

[alexth]

I've used to do it before until I realized that the price differences are getting lower every day. I've stopped calculating after that

Edited May 6, 2007 by alexth